


Breaking The Ice

by fabulously_frenzied



Series: ML Oneshots [8]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bisexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Episode: s03 e19 Ikari Gozen, F/F, Fluff, Kagaminette, Lesbian Kagami Tsurugi, Marigami, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 15:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabulously_frenzied/pseuds/fabulously_frenzied
Summary: The real reason Marinette doesn't want to get partnered with Kagami isn't because of a rivalry over Adrien, and Kagami's just trying to play a game, andmaybemake a friend along the way.NowSWAP PHONES.





	Breaking The Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Pardon me if I just uhhhhhhhh bend the story _just_ a little.
> 
> That's what fanfic is for, right?

"Cheese!"

The Luxor Obelisk stands tall and distant behind Kagami Tsurugi, trying to give her best smile for a selfie to submit to this competition. They're so close to reaching the end of the game, she can taste it. She has to be the one who wins! Adrien was at the end! This entire event was set up for the citizens of Paris to make new friends, and her only real friend was at the finish line. It was just his luck that she's been paired up with one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and if their double-date at the ice rink had been any indicator, Marinette is _clearly_ the girl he's still in love with. Maybe today, she can be a real, good friend to them both, and, by winning the game, give them a chance to talk. She's accepted that she herself is not Adrien's dream girl, and though it was hard to get over that fact at first, she values her friendship with Adrien, as well as his happiness, more than a relationship with him in which neither of them are really happy. 

Besides, once Kagami actually had the chance to get to know her and spend some one-on-one time with her, Marinette really seemed like a nice girl—definitely _not_ the kind of person who would reject Adrien and break his heart. Sure, she's a little airheaded, but through the time they've spent together on this challenge, Kagami watched her come up with some really creative solutions to the puzzles, even if she never took the credit for them. Why was that, anyway? Was she just trying to be modest? Marinette always acted more quickly, like she was trying to find the answers as fast as possible (which Kagami both appreciated and admired; the _had_ to get to Adrien first), but she was obviously embarrassed whenever Kagami noticed her trying to hide the game's clue boxes. She didn't know what that was all about. Maybe she wanted to give her a chance to solve the puzzles herself? It's not at all necessary, since Kagami really only cared about making progress, but she supposes she appreciates the gesture. Marinette was quick on her feet, always able to spot a solution before she could in some of the most creative of ways. She kept her eyes on the prize (even if her way of getting there seemed a bit counterintuitive), and acted like she cared a lot about whatever it was she was doing. Plus, there was the fact that Marinette is just plain _cute._ It was really no wonder Adrien fell in love with her. Who _wouldn't_ want to be with a girl like her?

Kagami finds herself unable to answer her own question.

As she attempts to take at least a decent selfie with Marinette's phone, a notification pops up on the side. She tries to brush it away, not wanting to invade the other girl's privacy, but the notification is insistent upon getting attention _right now_. She tries to push it away a little too emphatically, accidentally opening it in the process. 

_Notification: 1; Kagami: 0._

The pop-up expands into a video message from who Kagami can only assume is one of Marinette's other friends. She forgets sometimes that normal people have contacts in their phone other than only their mother. She doesn't recognize the girl in the message, but that tends to be a side effect of involuntary social isolation. _Dieu,_ what she wouldn't give to be a regular kid sometimes. Being in a long line of fencing champions is a _lot_ of pressure, not that she'll ever admit that to anyone.

"I can't believe you're stuck with Kagami!" The message begins, and the girl on the other end sounds suspiciously like Marinette being "stuck" with her is not the bad situation a sentence like that would usually imply. "Hang in there, girl, and don't worry! Maybe this competition will help you get a little closer to your crush. Catch you later!" The video ends with an air kiss at the camera, and the screen minimizes the video to return to the message feed. _Crush?_

_She's not here to make friends,_ Kagami thinks. _She just wants to find Adrien. She doesn't want to spend time with me. How could I have thought she wanted to be my friend?_

__

__

_"Merde,"_ she swears under her breath before immediately clapping a hand over her mouth. Mother never allows that kind of language. Mother never allows anything. Hastily snapping a selfie from the photo app, Kagami pockets the phone and runs back to where she and her partner separated for this leg of the challenge.

Moments later, a rather flustered-looking Marinette shuffles over to where Kagami stands. Not meeting her eyes, she holds out Kagami's phone for her to take and mumbles, "We need to go take a selfie in front of another monument." Huh. That's a drastic change in attitude. Where did that come from? She remembers the video she shouldn't have seen, and contemplates telling Marinette what she knows now. After all, they can't really be friends—or... anything else, for that matter—if she's not honest with her. She hesitates at her partner's shift in attitude, but catches herself and mentally repeats her personal motto. _I never hesitate._ Now was her chance to prove it.

"Before we go, Marinette, I, um..." _Putain._ Why is she faltering? She never falters! Taking a deep breath, she continues. "I accidentally saw a message one of your friends sent you. I swear I didn't mean to!" she adds quickly when she sees Marinette's eyes widen. "I just, uh... I don't want you to feel like you're stuck with me, I guess. I know I can be kind of cold and unapproachable... I know your friends all call me the 'ice queen' when they think I can't hear them, and I guess I kind of deserve the title. I'm really not the best at connecting with people, and I'm sure that's pretty obvious at this point. So," she starts, not fond of what she's about to offer, "I'd understand if you wanted to just get this over with so you can have a moment with Adrien. I know I'm just getting in the way of the two of you, so, if you want, we can... we can just go and take this last picture to find him." She sighs, tearing her gaze away from those impossibly blue eyes boring into her.

"Kagami," Marinette breathes, and it takes all her strength for Kagami to resist the urge to turn around and face her again. "Kagami, that's—that's not it at all. I, ah, _zut,_ how do I say this?" Kagami feels a hand on her shoulder, and her resolve crumbles. She looks back at the other girl to find a fierce blush creeping across her cheeks, which is when she notices her own face has grown quite warm, and she suspects it's not from being out in the sun all afternoon. "This contest was never about Adrien for me. Yeah, winning is nice, but I was really just looking forward to making a new friend today. And then I saw you were my partner, and—"

"And you didn't want to be my 'new friend,'" Kagami finishes, stepping back from Marinette's touch, trying in vain to look anywhere but her eyes.

"Yes! I mean—no! I-ugh!" Marinette throws her arms in the air, drags her hands over her face, stares at the ground for a long moment, then steps toward Kagami once more. "Look, I... I want to be your friend, I really do. I just... I was afraid to be your partner because I didn't want my own feelings to get in the way." _Huh?_ Marinette's lips curl ever so slightly upward at Kagami's confused expression, and _ Dieu, is she adorable, _ "Please don't think I was trying to keep you from Adrien," she pleads. "I know you and he are friends and fencing partners and there's no way I could ever compete with him because goodness knows there's no way I could keep up with him and what would you want with a nobody like me when he's _clearly_ better for you than I could ever be and—"

"Marinette." This time, it's Kagami's turn to place a hand on her partner's shoulder. The wheels in her head go into overdrive to process the other girl's rambling confession, but she can practically hear the countdown timer in Marinette's brain ticking to self-destruction. "Marinette, why would you be competing with him?"

"Because I know he's the one you like!"

Oh.

"Marinette, I—" Hmm. She takes another deep breath, unsure of how to continue and even more so of how Marinette will react. "Adrien's a great fencing partner, and pretty much the only friend I've ever had, but that's it." She doesn't want to say more, not yet. If she's wrong about what Marinette's trying to say, then she's scared to give too much away. Forcing herself to look at Marinette (solely to gauge her reaction, nothing else), she sees her partner's lips separated in a silent gasp. Pink lips, soft... _no!_

"Y-you... you mean—" She stutters, and the vulnerability and adorable charm of it all gives Kagami the courage to attempt admitting something she's never admitted before.

"I... I may have targeted Adrien for a while, yes, but I think it was really only because I was trying to help him move on from the girl who'd rejected him." She doesn't think it necessary to mention that she believes _Marinette_ is that girl. "And... he's, um... he's not exactly... my type." _Cher Dieu,_ she hopes it's clear what she's trying to say. She's never told anyone this before; it, until now, had been a matter exclusively between her and her journal, the one she hides among the wooden slats under her bed in the event that her mother comes in her room to spontaneously "clean" it. Choking out a vague explanation was hard enough to do. She doesn't want to have to spell it out.

"Oh." Marinette starts to reach toward Kagami, but retracts her hand before it can make contact, instead deciding to wring her wrists nervously. "Yeah, I-I... I know what you mean."

_Oh._

She continues. "I used to have the biggest crush in the world on him. It was embarrassingly hopeless and borderline stalkerish. I had to take a step back at one point and ask myself why I was really so obsessed, and I realized, um, I realized that maybe I wasn't as in love with him as I thought. Besides, even if I had been, it absolutely wasn't healthy. He deserves so much better than the crazed fangirls he has to put up with every day, and I don't want to be another one he has to deal with, so I took some time to just... let go of it all for a while. It felt good, you know? Not to spend every minute of every day trying to make sure I don't horribly mess something up in front of him, afraid that I'd ruin my chances with him forever. I mean, if I'm worried that one tiny slip-up will make me undesirable, then it's really a me-problem, right? So I tried to turn everything down a notch, focus on being his friend. And it actually worked! I stopped being so nervous and stuttery around him, and it was really nice not to feel so on edge whenever he was around. And—and then I met you." She stops wringing her wrists and hides her face with her hands, shaking her head softly.

"And then Adrien told me he wanted to try doing something with you, and that's how the ice rink thing happened. And that moment when I fell, and I was so distracted by two adorable boys offering to help me off the ground when you skated in and pulled me up yourself, and you told me my problem was that I hesitated, that you never hesitate, and—I didn't know what to think anymore. I was stuck between this boy I liked and this other boy I maybe liked and who also maybe liked me, and then you came bursting through them both, telling me to pick a target, to stop hesitating so much. It turned my world upside-down, Kagami, I-I just..."

The words are out of her mouth before Kagami can even think them. "Then why are you hesitating now, Marinette?"

_Putain._ Why did she just say that? The air, already thick with tension, settles in her stomach like lead as she awaits Marinette's reply. She looks down, unprepared. She's never felt so unprepared. Every day of her life has been planned. In fencing, she has to anticipate her opponent's move or risk defeat, which isn't an option. So why can't she see this playing out in her head?

It seems Marinette's world wasn't the only one to be turned upside-down.

Eyes shut tight, Kagami can't look back up. Her head won't move, her arms plastered to her side, her feet firmly planted in the ground. Maybe she could have been the monument Marinette took a selfie in front of, if she hasn't already taken one. She hears Marinette let out a short breath, and the next thing Kagami knows, there are arms around her squeezing her tight. Marinette's warmth seeps into her, melting every organ in her body, and she's afraid her brain might leak out her ears. The heat in her face grows even stronger, and suddenly the entire world is too hot. But, for the first time, it's a lot brighter, too.

Unfrozen, Kagami lifts her arms from her side and hugs back.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fabulously-frenzied)!


End file.
